Bari Mayor Antonio Decaro said Sunday
that Puglia Governor Michele Emiliano's memory was faulty after
he sparked a major furore by saying he had accompanied him to
the home of a mobster's sister when they were both covering
different roles in the southern city many years ago.
Emiliano made the comments that triggered the row during a
demonstration held on Saturday to show support for Decaro after
the interior ministry launched an inspection of the Bari
municipal administration for possible mafia infiltration.
Decaro, a member of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), says
the move by the centre-right central government is linked to
June's local elections in the city.
Emiliano spoke about a visit to the sister of mafia boss Antonio
Capriati when former prosecutor Emiliano was Bari mayor between
2004 and 2014 and Decaro was the traffic chief on his city
executive, amid protests about the decision to close the Bari
Vecchia quarter to cars.
The statement led to calls from centre-right figures for both
Decaro and Emiliano to quit and for the city council to be
dissolved.
But Decaro said Sunday that, while he did have a run-in with
Capriati's sister over the traffic restrictions, he had not
visited her at home.
"Emiliano does not remember that episode, which took place
almost 20 years ago, correctly," Decaro said.
"It is certainly true that he gave me all his support, in the
face of protests from a good part of the neighbourhood, when we
began to close Bari Vecchia to cars, but I never went to
anyone's sister's house.
"After arguments with some residents, one day we met some lads
in the street who were also quite "sceptical" about the new
rules and began to rail against me as we entered the Cathedral
and Michele told them to leave me alone because I was working
for the children of the neighborhood.
"I met the the lady in question, as reported in the news at the
time, in a street after it was closed to traffic and I argued
with her because she refused to accept the installation of the
flower boxes that stopped the cars passing".
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